Impending Eviction May Have Caused Empire State Building Shooter to Snap

NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 24: New York Police officers stand at the scene of a shooting near the Empire State Building on August 24, 2012 in New York City. Police said 58-year-old Jeffrey Johnson shot and killed a former co-worker 41-year-old of Hazan Imports during an altercation at 10 W. 33rd St. with a .45 caliber handgun. At least eight other people were wounded, at least some according to police by the New York City Police officers firing at the suspected shooter, and were taken to local hospitals to be treated for what New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg described as non-life threatening injures. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)Photo: Mario Tama/2012 Getty Images

Friday’s shooting outside the Empire State Building has been mostly attributed to shooter Jeffrey Johnson’s longstanding grudge against former co-worker Steven Ercolino. This morning, the New York Post shed some additional light on the situation: Johnson — who had been without work for two years after being laid off from Hazan Import — could no longer make rent on his Upper East Side one-bedroom and his landlord had threatened to force him out. “This was the final straw that pushed him over the edge,” a police source told the paper. “He was blaming the victim for being out of work, having no money and now having no apartment.”